


Where Your Home Is

by anACTUALmess



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:21:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24331993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anACTUALmess/pseuds/anACTUALmess
Summary: We all have something to fight for - don't we?As Spiderman, Peter knows that his friends, family, even the neighborhood he lives in face dangers. These days, it's not strange to be a target when trying to do the right thing and trouble seems to find his home more often than he would like. Right now, whatever this thing is, he just knows that this is an opportunity.





	1. Rodent Problem

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sure everyone can guess which character is the one I made up? This started out as a writing project for school and I thought sure, why not expand on it for fun?

It wasn't the strangest thing to have a rodent problem once in a while in this building. It was just a part of life and once in a while, May and Peter had the unlucky apartment that got a few uninvited visitors. This, however, looked like a full-blown infestation. Good sized holes had been chewed into several doors and walls all along various apartments on the bottom floor and whatever was doing this was slowly moving upwards. Not only that, but the trash cans were knocked over almost every night and rooted through, although most of the garbage looked as if it had been eaten. It would've been easy to say that it had been rats or something...

"You've got to be kidding me," Peter half yelled as an entire cartridge of his webbing lay splattered across his bedroom wall. Something smelled like it was starting to burn too... Something that was trapped inside the mess of webbing. The webbing wasn't combusting but the heat that seemed to be radiating from the wriggling cocoon was causing the chemical reaction that allowed it to disintegrate to speed up rapidly. He grabbed a pair of tongs from the kitchen and crept cautiously closer. A foot shot out of the goop punctuated by a muffled high pitched scream. Peter made a grab at the foot with the tongs and pulled, inwardly screaming as more little limbs popped out from the mess of web fluid, white-gray smoke starting to become more visible. Now that he thought about it, the tongs were heating up. Fast.

Peter threw the tongs down just as the mass - now easily discernable as being furry - fell away from the wall and thrashed around on the floor as it tried to remove the remaining webbing from its body. The white-gray smoke was rolling off of it as the web fluid disintegrated and a big light brown rabbit ear popped up. A second followed and more of that brown-colored fur was revealed. It shook its head vigorously and peered up at him with beady orange eyes. It just stared at him for a moment and all Peter could do was stare back in shock.

Then the smoke detector went off.

The animal thing dropped low to the ground with its ears laid back against its head as the loud beeping kept up. It made a sound like a child's whine or whimper before scuttling under Peter's bed.

"Wait, no! Don't go under there!" He reached for it but quickly recoiled at the feeling of teeth against his hand. It felt almost as if he'd been burned. There was no use trying to pull it out from under the bed with the smoke detector blaring and it was probably a good idea to check to see if the thing had burned anything else in the house. Peter took one of his intact web shooters and surrounded the bottom of the bed before going to shut off the smoke detector. "Guess I'm not getting any studying done for English tonight."


	2. A Monster Under the Bed

"Here," May said, handing Peter a paper plate with chicken nuggets on it, "maybe you can lure it out with food."

"I got it, don't worry." Although he wondered if chicken nuggets were the food to use in this particular situation. Peter cleared away a small corner of the webbing where the bed met the wall and peered into the dim, dust bunny covered crevice. Beady orange eyes stared back at him from the furthest, darkest corner the creature could find. He was honestly surprised that, whatever it was, it hadn't tried to escape and stayed tucked under his bed in the hour that passed since May had come home.

"Is it under there?"

"Yeah, I can see it."

"Why don't you just use your super strength to lift up the bed and I'll get it with the laundry basket?"

Peter glanced up at the small charred spot on his bedroom wall where the canister of web fluid had exploded. "Don't think that's a good idea," he murmured before looking back under the bed. "Hey." He almost jumped when the creature's gaze seemed to focus on him when he spoke. "Are you hungry?" Peter took a warm nugget and flicked it across the floor under the bed in the thing's general direction. It could probably see in the dark as it immediately turned in the direction of the nugget. It took a moment before it scooted toward it and the sounds of munching could be heard. It took a bit of coaxing, but in about 10 minutes, Peter had it close enough to the edge of the bed where he could make out a tiny _human_ _hand_ reach out for the plate. Those round orange eyes peered cautiously up at him and around him as May tried to get a look under the bed as well.

"Don't be scared," May cooed from behind Peter. "If you come out you can have more nuggets. Do you like that?"

The creature's eyes flickered back between May and Peter's faces for a moment and Peter wondered if it understood what May was saying to it. On a hunch, Peter slowly gestured for May to back up with him to give whatever it was some space to move. "It's okay," he said quietly to it. "You're safe here." He wasn't sure what to make of it when it finally started to crawl out from under the bed, but he had absolutely seen a human hand on it. Two, in fact. The creature was exceptionally small, maybe about the size of a pug if not a little bigger and covered in light brown fur. The ears were large and absolutely rabbit-like, it sat on its haunches like a rabbit, and its face was round like a small child's. It sat crouched close to the ground as it polished off the last few nuggets and the paper plate to boot. In fact, Peter could smell burning paper as it chewed away at it.

May was in just as much if not more shock than Peter. "What do you think it is?" She crouched down slowly and sat on the floor next to Peter as the creature watched her. "I can't tell if it's an animal or a baby in a fursuit."

The furry little thing stared at May for the longest time before taking a small tentative step closer to her. It made a little sound, something like an "ah" and stared at her more intently. "Ah." Its little rabbit-like nose twitched furiously before it came a little closer. "Ah!"

"I promised you food," May said, suddenly remembering that they had coaxed the little thing out with food. "You sit right there with Peter and I'll get you food, okay?" She got up slowly and crept out of the room, leaving the door slightly ajar so that she could still hear them.

It was just Peter and the furry little thing there now. The room was quiet and whatever it was, it seemed content to wait patiently for May to return with the food. "Hey," he said quietly. The little creature didn't turn to face him, but the left ear tilted in his direction. "Can you understand me? When we talk to you?" That seemed to catch the creature's attention. It turned just a little so that it could see him out of the corner of its eye and gave a faint nod. 


	3. He? She? They?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calling it and "it" just seemed too cruel.

"I think it's a girl."

Peter looked up at May, the comment seemingly coming from out of nowhere as they sat on the floor of his room. He'd been thinking about it too, however, as they watched the little furball munch away at not only chicken nuggets, but also carrots, cookies, drinking water and apple juice and consuming anything else May had thought to bring for food. The creature had yet to speak to them - if that was even possible - but Peter was sure that their words were more than gibberish to the rabbit baby.

"Definitely looks like a baby," May murmured. "You're a cute little baby. I bet you're a girl." 

By the size of them, a baby was plausible. But Peter still didn't know what to make of the large, furry rabbit-like hind feet and the small human-looking hands keeping a firm grip on the food. The way they were sitting was like a child with their legs extended on either side of the plate. The egg-shaped cotton ball tail lay flat on the ground, twitching occasionally as new foods were sampled. There was even a thick dewlap around the neck area. Funny enough, they didn't seem to be nearly as afraid of him and May as before. Maybe that was the appeal of the food? The baby creature seemed to be completely oblivious to their speculation of gender as their eyes began to droop shut.

The baby creature yawned and slowly stuffed the last nugget into her mouth. It was getting late and they seemed to have the right idea. Peter had school in the morning anyway. He'd do his nightly patrol through the neighborhood and call it good for the night. Peter got up as quietly as he could and emptied his laundry basket out into the closet, leaving a few old towels in to make it nice and soft before setting it down next to the creature. "I think you're right," he said to May. "You can sleep in here if you're tired, okay?" He smiled a little when she crawled into the basket without a fight and settled down at the very back of it, curling up a lot like a small animal.

"Do you think it's safe to leave her in the basket?"

"Call me crazy, but yeah. I think it'll be okay."


	4. Baby's First Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can talk??

May had stayed home for the last few days with the mysterious little fluff ball that had somehow snuck into their apartment and she really seemed to be enjoying it. She was very responsive to May and even went so far as to run up and sit in her lap for a time. She smiled now, like a happy baby in YouTube videos, and that only served to confirm Peter's suspicion that she could understand the human language. Peter had been toying the idea of asking the little rabbit thing what her name was or if she ever had one since she didn't seem to respond to any other name they called her by.

"Aaaaaahh..." The rabbit thing sat on her haunches next to Peter on his desk, mouth hanging open and eagerly awaiting food. Peter waggled a Cheeto just over her nose while examining the inside of her mouth with a small flashlight. The "aaah" sound slowly escalated into a high pitched scream the longer the snack was kept out of her reach.

"Okay, okay," Peter said quickly. He dropped the Cheeto and the shrill shriek ceased immediately. "You've got a full set of teeth like a human." They were serrated too. He didn't stop her when she went for the remaining Cheetos in the bag. She'd put up with plenty of his poking and prodding for the day. "Y'know May's gonna start to think you don't like her if you keep ignoring her," Peter teased. He almost felt a little bad when she looked at him with something akin to disbelief. "You keep ignoring her when she talks to you cuz she doesn't say your name, right? So you have to tell her your name if you want her to call you by it."

She seemed to think about it as she munched on the crumbs left in the bag. Peter didn't think she would think about it that hard - and he wondered if she was really thinking about it at all, or if the subject had lost her interest already.

"Katsuyu."

Peter froze. The rabbit baby stared up at him from the desk innocently.

"Katsuyu," she said again in a child-like voice. "Ka-tsu-yu." She pouted when he didn't respond. "Katsuyu is Katsuyu!"

"You can talk," was the first thing Peter could think, his mouth switching to autopilot before he could stop it. "So your name is Katsuyu? Kind of a weird name..."

Katsuyu pouted. "Peter is weird," she muttered with an all too fitting bratty attitude as she chewed on the empty Cheetos bag. A faint smell like burning plastic emanated and the edges of the bag in her mouth began to curl and take on a charred color. 

"Wait," Peter said, finally snapping out of it. He carefully pulled the smoking bag out of Katsuyu's mouth to get her attention. "So why didn't you just tell us you wanted food when you snuck in here?"

Katsuyu looked away and shrugged. Her ears drooped back against her head as she kicked her fuzzy little feet. "Katsuyu is afraid of talking to strangers..."

Peter nodded. "That's smart. But we're not strangers, right? Me and May, we're not strangers anymore Katsuyu?"

Katsuyu's ears shot up, probably in surprise and maybe even happiness. She nodded at him. "Katsuyu likes Peter and May. Katsuyu will be sad when Katsuyu has to go."

"You don't have to go anywhere. I guess unless there's things you have to do."

"Katsuyu has nothing to do but survive."

"Then you should stay here, don't you think?" At the very least, she wouldn't be running around breaking into people's houses if she stayed here. "It's nice and warm and there's food at least."

"And Peter and May," Katsuyu replied gleefully before nodding again. "Katsuyu thinks it would be nice to stay awhile with Peter and May."


	5. Baby faced, but not a baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katsuyu is smarter than she lets on and she doesn't let on about a lot.

"Where is Peter going?"

Katsuyu peeked out from beneath the bed as Peter, fully suited, was about to climb out of the bedroom window. He hadn't thought she'd noticed or cared all that much when he went out on his nightly patrols but the rabbit thing was more perceptive than she let on. It wasn't the first time she'd done this either, asking questions at times that caught him completely off guard. He was starting to wonder if she did this on purpose. "Just out," was all he could think of to say. "I'll be back okay?" Katsuyu hopped onto the bed and proceeded to climb up his back, the feeling of tiny claws pressing into the suit and his back making him squirm. "Kats, you have to stay here."

"Katsuyu wants to go with," she said adamantly. She was so small that it was nearly impossible for him to reach her on the center of his back, much less pull her off. She had strategically placed herself in that spot. "Katsuyu is worried."

Peter stopped fidgeting for a second at that and made a futile attempt to look at her. He sat back on the bed and let Katsuyu crawl off his back. Her ears were spread out to the sides a bit and backed up on her haunches. "What are you worried about?"

"Peter." Katsuyu looked at him as if that should have explained it all.

Peter rubbed a finger against Katsuyu's cheek, the rest of her being a little too warm to touch even in the suit. "I'll be okay, Kats. I'm pretty good at this stuff." But it was cute that she was worried about his safety. Katsuyu pushed his hand away and looked at him again. It wasn't a baby faced pout like she usually did, but a frown. A frown like someone who had seen things that they couldn't explain and probably didn't want to. A frown that was too serious to look right on her. As much as Katsuyu looked and often acted like a baby, it was starting to seem like that couldn't have been further from the truth.

"Katsuyu knows what blood smells like. Knows what Peter's blood smells like. Peter is human and can't afford to lose blood."

Peter sighed a little. He still didn't know what it was exactly that she could do and the last thing he needed to have happen was some kind of superpowered baby meltdown. He pulled off one of the spider-shaped trackers from his suit and handed it to her. "This will tell you where I am. I'm gonna be back in like," he paused to think about it, "two hours at the most. If I'm not, you can see how close I am to the house by tapping it okay? Then you'll know I'm safe and I'm coming home." The piece of tech made her uneasy, but it seemed that she would take it for what it was worth. Katsuyu still didn't look happy, but when he made to climb out the window again she didn't follow.

About two hours later, Peter came back to the window to find Katsuyu still sitting on the bed, wide awake and watching his little dot on the digital map the tracker projected. Her ears turned immediately in the direction of the window before he even reached it. _'She's got good hearing,'_ he thought as he shut the window. "I came back just like I said I would Kats." Katsuyu headbutted him in the stomach as soon as he crouched down low enough, but not hard. She was sniffing him everywhere, looking for signs of injury or maybe just enjoying a change of scent. "Kats, you and I need to have a talk about personal space later," Peter said, picking her up just before she could climb up his back again. Katsuyu nodded at him almost in approval, although likely it wasn't because she agreed. He tucked her into the laundry basket of towels and went to get cleaned up for the night.


	6. Your friends, my friends, our friends

So much had been happening in the last two weeks, both for Peter Parker and for Spiderman. Peter had been hesitant to bring Ned over to the house since he and May had found Katsuyu for a number of reasons, but there was only so much that could be done remotely. He had to take a chance, and with how much Katsuyu had sniffed his school things, perhaps Ned coming over wouldn't be so much of a shock. "Promise me you'll be cool, okay?"

"Come on Peter. You remember who you're talking to."

"Yes and that's why I'm reminding you." Ignoring the slightly offended look on his friend's face, Peter carefully and quietly opened the door to the apartment to let them in. It was Katsuyu's first day home alone and he wondered if she was anxious for someone to come back. "Katsuyu," Peter called as he let Ned follow behind him. For a minute, Peter wondered if perhaps she'd gotten out of the apartment. Maybe she had run away. Something about that made his stomach sink a little. A pair of ears shot up from behind the table and Katsuyu scampered into view a moment later. Her nose was twitching rapidly and she had immediately set her eyes on Ned but she didn't speak. Peter moved a little closer to the kitchen table but Katsuyu wouldn't let Ned out of her sight. "I want you to meet my friend Ned. Can you come here for me?"

Katsuyu finally looked at Peter when he stood in front of Ned, blocking his friend from her sight. She didn't fight when he picked her up but immediately looked at Ned again when she could see him. Peter brought her over, keeping a firm but not crushing grip on the fuzzball in his arms. "Just let her smell your hand," Peter told Ned quietly as they got within arm's length.

"I'm cool with animals," Ned reassured Peter as he held his hand out to Katsuyu. "Hi Katsuyu. Do you like donuts?" Neither of them were expecting Katsuyu to grab hold of his hand and sniff it. Nor were they expecting her to suddenly jump onto his shoulder and sniff his hair, his face, his shirt, whatever she could get close to without falling off of him.

Katsuyu rubbed her chin against Ned's cheek before letting herself lie over his shoulder. "Katsuyu knows Ned's smell. Peter comes home with it often." Katsuyu rubbed her cheek against Ned's, more than happy to let him rub her chin.

"So you really do talk? You're all soft and fuzzy."

"Katsuyu grooms her fur lots so Katsuyu will be soft! Katsuyu retains heat this way for later."

"You store heat?" Ned was about to pet Katsuyu's dewlap when Peter stopped him short.

"You don't wanna touch the dewlap," Peter said, "it gets really hot under all that fur." He'd found that out the hard way one night he'd been too tired to pay attention to what he was doing. Of course, Katsuyu hadn't meant to do it on purpose and she'd cried when he accidentally burned himself. It was one of those things she couldn't quite control. "Ned's gonna be hanging out here tonight Kats. He'll stay with you while I'm out doing stuff, okay?"

"Okay. Ned said does Katsuyu like donuts? Katsuyu likes donuts so Katsuyu hopes Ned has donuts."

Katsuyu was getting along just fine with Ned. Peter had honestly thought she would be too shy to actually talk to him, but Ned had also offered her food. Whatever the easiest way was into Katsuyu's good graces, he was just glad that things were going over smoothly. Maybe Katsuyu wouldn't be so inclined to run after him when he went out at night if Ned was there with her. ' _She has super hearing and smell too, so she can probably keep an eye out for anything coming a little too close to home_ ,' he thought. If Katsuyu worried about his safety, then maybe she would be willing to worry about the safety of people he cared about. Maybe, just maybe, she would start to care about them a little more too.


	7. Chapter 7

"Has Kats been okay with you?"

"She's been great!" Ned took a french fry from his lunch tray and "dropped" it onto the top of his bag that just happened to be open the slightest bit at the top.

Ned wasn't nearly as discreet as he tried to be or perhaps it was just because Peter was quick to notice things, but he couldn't help but panic when he saw a small hand pull it into the bag through the small opening that was left. Peter glanced around quickly and thankfully, most people probably didn't pay attention to what was happening at ankle height. An orange eye peered up at him from inside the bag and he heard the quiet, ecstatic whisper of his name. "You brought her to school," Peter whisper-shouted. 

Ned shrugged sheepishly. "It was either I put her in the bag or she just followed me all the way to school. I couldn't even bribe her with food."

"Saving your food for later," one of the students jeered as Ned dropped another fry into the bag.

A soft growl and a thump from within the bag itself didn't escape Peter's notice as the other teens walked away from them. "Kats, no," Peter whispered firmly. He grabbed hold of the bag when it started to wiggle more.

"They say mean things to Ned...!"

They did, and it hurt. God, did things like that hurt, but how could he explain it to her that they were used to it? That they didn't want to hurt someone just because they had hurt them? Peter was just a little impressed that Katsuyu could understand that the other student's words were meant to hurt Ned. "They did, and it's not cool, but neither is hurting people because they're mean. Nothing changes."

"But you know what's really cool?" Ned opened up the bag a little more so that Katsuyu could see them both clearly and handed her the candy bar he'd been saving for that night. "It's really cool that you wanna stand up for me. Thanks Kats."

Katsuyu took the candy bar but Peter knew just from the way her ears drooped and the look on her face that she wasn't satisfied. It wasn't anger, but almost a look of disappointment. Katsuyu nuzzled Ned's hand affectionately but didn't take any more food he offered her.

"Katsuyu hasn't seen humans change for so long in ways humans should," she murmured from inside the bag. "Katsuyu is afraid that if humans don't change, will come time that things _make_ humans change..."


	8. Humans

There was something he was quickly starting to realize about the strange way Katsuyu spoke. If she didn't refer to someone by name in particular, she named them by the most prominent trait about them, be it physical or personality. The other thing was how she talked about humans. Not that she talked _about_ them, but that she specifically referred to them as such. The fact that someone was human seemed to take precedence over who they were. Peter was human, May was human, Ned was human, and that's what it all boiled down to at the end of the day. He couldn't quite say that she was talking down to them when she talked about humans but he couldn't say for sure that she wasn't either. Katsuyu always seemed disappointed in those moments.

"Katsuyu?"

Katsuyu looked up at Peter suddenly, six Oreos shoved into her mouth and a seventh and eighth in her tiny hands.

Peter couldn't help a small laugh. She reminded him of a squirrel. "Kats, do you hate humans," he asked hesitantly. She stopped shoving food into her mouth immediately. She had pretty much stopped chewing too. Peter noted the way her ears tilted back when she heard the question. Was she upset? Offended? Or trying to think of what she should do now that she'd been called out? Peter waited patiently for her to finish off the food in her mouth. He wanted to have a serious and, above all, honest conversation with her if she was mentally capable of that.

"Why does Peter think Katsuyu hates humans?"

"I want to know if you do. And why."

Katsuyu crawled closer to him, her movements filled with caution as though she were worried he would react to her. Peter didn't so much as budge and only turned to face her when she sat in front of him on the desk. Katsuyu looked up at him with wide orange eyes. She made sure to look him in the eyes as if she knew it was a human thing to do. "Katsuyu doesn't hate humans," she said quietly, "but Katsuyu definitely has favorites."

"Like?" 

"Miyamo, Doctor Mei, Alastor, Clara, Charlie, Martha, Angie, Tommy, Yong. Katsuyu wants to just name a few. Katsuyu named the humans Katsuyu spent the longest time with. Plenty other humans that Katsuyu likes, but never knew the names of. Never knew for long."

"What happened to all of those others?" Peter was genuinely scared of the answer. He was scared because of the way her ears fell back and her eyes watered but she still smiled up at him.

"Gone," Katsuyu said quietly. "Everyone leaves Katsuyu eventually. Sometimes humans leave Katsuyu because humans are afraid of Katsuyu. Sometimes Katsuyu makes them sad and humans can't survive the sad. Sometimes humans leave Katsuyu but not because the humans want to. Humans are why Katsuyu knows what blood is. What mean is. What hatred is. But," she paused and her ears tilted back up toward Peter, "humans are why Katsuyu knows what kindness is. And Katsuyu thinks that those humans who know what kindness is are good humans. Humans who know good should be protected from badness. That's what Katsuyu thinks." Katsuyu crawled closer to Peter and jumped up onto his chest, doing her best to hug him without digging her claws into him. "Is what Katsuyu tries to do."

Peter never expected to hear so many names. He never expected to hear that kind of answer when she acted as though she didn't have a care in the world. He had wondered why it sometimes seemed like she knew things she shouldn't and sounded as if she were so old and tired and perhaps it was because she was. Who knew how old she was or how long she had lived but she was still trying to believe in good people. Peter held her up and rubbed her cheek the way she seemed to like. "I think you're doing a great job," he murmured. "Thanks for trying to protect people."

"Peter and May and Ned will eventually have to leave Katsuyu... But until Katsuyu is alone again, Katsuyu will protect."


End file.
